Signal Tribune Newspaper

BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer

(above) Long Beach Fire Department responds to a reported scuba diving accident last Saturday.

If your house catches fire in the middle of the night, or if you or a loved one suffer a sudden life-threatening medical condition, it’s good to know that by simply pressing 9-1-1 on your phone, you can summon firefighters, paramedics and an ambulance to your place of residence. Not many people, however, are aware of all that goes into making sure well trained professionals will respond in a timely manner to emergencies throughout Long Beach 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Last Thursday, Long Beach Fire Department (LBFD) Battalion Chief Frank Hayes briefly described the resources available to the department and how it responds to crises.

Hayes addressed an audience of about 70 at the monthly meeting of the Wrigley Area Neighborhood Alliance. The gathering took place at the Jackie Robinson Academy on the evening of November 6.
“You should be very proud of what you have here; we have a quality fire department,” Hayes said, stressing that it uses state-of-the-art equipment and is regarded as one of the best fire departments in the nation. He pointed out that in the last two years, the LBFD was able to extinguish two major apartment fires— the Paradise Gardens fire and the Galaxy Towers fire— before they could have wreaked total devastation of the buildings. “Due to our proactive training, knowing how to do the job and the very aggressive way we attack fires we were able to knock those fires down,” he said. “Members of other fire departments were just amazed that we were able to put a stop on those fires.”
Hayes explained that the LBFD’s 23 fire stations are strategically located throughout the city, enabling firefighters and paramedics to respond to emergencies very quickly. “You are well protected,” he said. “We have a three- to four-minute response time to anywhere in the city.”
To demonstrate LBFD emergency operations, Hayes showed a ten-minute video with actual scenes of fire department personnel battling fires, rescuing car crash victims and responding to medical crises. “As you can guess, the City of Long Beach is very diverse in nature,” Hayes said. He explained that in addition to single-family homes, two- and three-story apartment buildings, office buildings, stores, restaurants and factories, the city also has high-rises, a port, waterways, an airport, and occasional hazardous materials incidents. He noted that the LBFD has the equipment and trained personnel to handle emergencies in any of those arenas.
According to printed material that Hayes distributed, in 2007, the LBFD responded to: 5,011 fires; 38,677 medical emergencies; 2,958 other situations requiring its personnel; and 746 hazardous material incidents. In addition, the department responded to 9,596 lifeguard/marine safety calls and undertook 134 urban search-and-rescue operations.
According to the handout, the LBFD has 466 sworn personnel and the equivalent of 115.28 full-time civilian employees. “Our firefighters work different shifts, but on any given day we have 133 persons available to fight fires anywhere in the city,” Hayes said. He explained that the LBFD administration had not yet announced all the ways it would achieve the ten-percent budget reduction ordered by the Long Beach City Council a few weeks ago. “We are losing two sworn fire inspector positions and two civilian secretarial positions, but at this point I do not know of any other cutbacks,” he said.
According to Hayes, the LBFD has 21 fire engines capable of carrying five hundred gallons of water and connecting to fire hydrants, five 100-foot aerial ladder trucks and one 50-foot ladder truck. He also briefly described the equipment the LBFD uses to protect the port and the airport and the rescue boats that rescue people in distress in the 5,300 acres of ocean inside the breakwater. Hayes noted that the LBFD also has its own swift-water rescue team, urban search-and-rescue team, and wildland fire strike team. Those teams are available for local incidents and are often called on to respond to disasters in other parts of the state and nation.
Hayes noted that the LBFD has nine paramedic rescue ambulances and each is staffed with two firefighter/paramedics. “We also have five basic life-support (BLS) ambulances that are each staffed with two civilian BLS-trained drivers,” he said. “This increases our efficiency and cost savings.”
Hayes pointed out that the LBFD has a website describing the department’s current programs, events and incidents. “It is updated every day and is very cutting edge,” he said. “We are being very aggressive in getting information out to the community and our department members on a very timely basis.” He added that the website includes text, photographs and videos of LBFD operations, including actual fire rescues.
“One of the videos is of a real heart-wrenching tragedy,” he said. “We had three young girls lose their lives in a fire, and we just don’t want a repeat of that.” Hayes noted that the converted garage where the girls perished did not have smoke detectors that could have alerted them to the danger before it was too late. “I have a couple of key messages that I want to give to everyone,” Hayes stressed. “Make sure you regularly change the batteries in your smoke detectors and make sure you throw away your smoke detectors and buy new ones every ten years.”
Hayes pointed out that the LBFD works hard 365 days a year to protect Long Beach’s 490,166 residents and countless visitors within the city’s 52.3-square-mile land area, which includes seven miles of beaches. He added that the LBFD also provides rescue services on 22 square miles of waterways. “As you can tell, I am very proud of the department and the quality of service that we provide,” he said.
To get daily updates on LBFD programs and activities, go to firechannel.org/blog

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